


Fish Stew Peridot

by dratthepopulation



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Gen, Peridot crushing on Amethyst
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-12-11
Updated: 2015-12-11
Packaged: 2018-05-06 04:20:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,678
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5402783
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dratthepopulation/pseuds/dratthepopulation
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Set directly after Too Far. After working on the Cluster-thwarting drill, Steven gets hungry and decides he wants to drag everyone to Fish Stew Pizza to show Peridot the joys of the culinary sphere.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fish Stew Peridot

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you, SpeedofScarlet, for the prompt! I'm having fun with it. I hope I did your vision justice!

Pearl had her lip under her teeth and her miniscule brows furrowed and she dashed the chalk over the board, each white line of schematics she drew mechanically precise.

Garnet pulled the straw from her mouth and tossed it, “Wrap it up, Pearl. Steven’s hungry.”

“Just one-- one moment…” Pearl labeled parts, scribed notes in rapid but impeccable cursive.

“Pearl!” Steven called, walking up with Peridot and Amethyst following behind. “I’m--”

“Hungry,” Pearl sighed with Steven, who stopped and smiled. “Yes, we’ll take care of that. We can continue work tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow?” Peridot complained. “We can’t put this off until tomorrow, the Cluster--”

Amethyst came up behind her and smacked a hand onto Peridot’s shoulder, making her lurch forward. “Chill P.” Amethyst suddenly frowned, and she and Pearl exchanged an odd look. “P-uh, Peridot. Little man gotta rest.”

“This _little man,_ ” Peridot squinted at Steven, “hasn’t been at all involved in the engineering aspects of this project. Why don’t we continue to work while Steven attends to his organic needs?”

“Steven has been a vital part to this project,” Garnet stated, stepping up and putting her hand in his hair. Steven grinned up at her.

“Thanks to him, we’re working instead of fighting,” Amethyst hooked Steven around the shoulders and squeezed. Steven giggled and waved the compliment away.

“Yes,” Pearl added, “Not only has been the keeper of the peace, he’s been invaluable by generating fresh ideas,” she smiled proudly at him.

Steven sparkled back, then his face set with resolve. “Peridot has a point. Why don’t we all come back after dinner?”

“Steven, no,” Pearl asserted gently. “You need to rest.”

“I’m plenty rested!”

“Don’t let this become searching for Malachite all over again.”

Steven’s face fell, deepening the dark patches under his eyes. “We gotta keep looking for Malachite.”

“No!” Pearl held her hands out, and put them on Steven’s shoulders. “No, Steven, one thing at a time. And right now your job is to eat and rest, okay?”

“But-- the Cluster…”

Pearl pet Steven’s head and glowered at Peridot. _Look what you’ve done._

Peridot blinked back, anxious to fix it. “Steven,” she came around to face him, “I feel that Pearl and I can now manage ourselves. While you rest overnight, Pearl and I can engineer a new drill.”

Steven relaxed. Garnet put a hand between Pearl’s stiff shoulder blades. “I’ll come along for backup. Just in case,” She lifted her visor to wink at Steven, who grinned back.

Peridot flicked a hopeful look to Amethyst. Amethyst didn’t seem to notice; “I’ll stay with the dude,” she announced at Steven, Peridot wilting. “I’ll take Pearl’s place and breathe on your face while you’re sleeping.”

“Amethyst,” Pearl grumbled. Amethyst leaned in, staring wide eyed three inches from Steven’s face and panted. Steven laughed and shoved her away.

“What do you want for dinner,” Garnet asked Steven.

“Guess!” Steven cheered up at her.

“You want all of us to go to Fish Stew Pizza.”  

“You guessed right!” Steven shot his hands straight up.

“Not exactly a surprise,” Pearl shrugged limply.

“Ohhhh!” Amethyst grabbed Peridot’s arm and yanked her back over next to her. “We gon’ teach Peri how to pizza!”

“You got it!” Steven pointed.

“How to... pizza?” Peridot worried.

Pearl threw Garnet a worried look. The corner of Garnet’s mouth curled up. She started the procession back to Beach City.

Pearl sighed and murmured, “Well, getting banned again won’t be a tragedy…”

 

•~*✫*~•     

 

Kiki stared at the four gems and Steven, notepad in hand.

“Rootbeer,” Garnet stated.

Kiki’s hand moved, scribbling on the pad, but her eyes did not. “There’s a new one?” Kiki asked Steven.

“Yeah! Her name’s Peridot. Can I get a Shirley Temple?”

Kiki jotted it down, eyes flicking up to Peridot.

Peridot squinted back at her.

“Uhhh, anything else? Amethyst?”

“Nothin fer me, I got ketchup. But get Peridot a orange soda!” Amethyst raised her hand high above Peridot’s head and pointed down at her.

“Uh huh,” Kiki finally looked down at what she was writing. Then back up at Steven, “You getting the usual pie?”

“Yeah! But can you make half just cheese? We don’t know what Peridot is going to like just yet. She’s never eaten before.”

She stared at Steven for five dragging seconds before flicking her eyes to the straightfaced gems and back. “You got it,” she answered carefully. She murmured something about being right back out and disappeared into the back.

As soon as she was out of sight, Peridot asked “So is she like a servant or something?”

Pearl flinched with panic and shot a nervous look to Garnet. Amethyst erupted into laughter.

“This is Kiki’s job,” Steven explained to Peridot. “She gets money for it, and helps out her family. She also goes to school.”

Peridot squinted at Steven. “Money?”

“It’s something you trade for stuff. We’re going to be giving them money for the pizza.”

Peridot frowned and blinked. “Humans have the entirety of their collective knowledge accessible in a little rectangle computer they keep in their pockets, but are still operating under a barter system?”

Smiling, Steven furrowed his eyebrows. “What?”

Kiki lowered a plastic cup down in front of him, “Shirley Temple, with five cherries.”

“Thank you!”

“Rootbeer,” for Garnet, who gave a ‘thank you,’ “and orange soda,” for Peridot. Peridot shot a distrustful glance at Kiki. Amethyst elbowed her, and she flinched and rubbed the offended arm. “Thank you,” she muttered.

Kiki had trouble keeping eye contact but gave an odd smile and nod. She slipped three straws onto the table and spoke to Steven, “your pizza will be out in about ten minutes.”

“Thanks, Kiki!”

“My pleasure, Steven,” she smiled, and went on her way.

“It’s hissing,” Peridot muttered, narrowed eyes peeking over the rim of her cup. “And… spitting. Is it alive? I take offense to this.” Amethyst cackled. Peridot slid her eyes over to her and back, blushing. “It does have a pleasant odor.”

Amethyst reached over the table to grab a straw, ripped one half of the paper off, blew the other half into giggling Steven’s hair, and dunked the plastic tube into Peridot’s drink.

Peridot recoiled and scowled.

“Taste it!” Amethyst ordered.

Peridot eyed her and leaned over, careful to avoid the straw, and went to dip her blue tongue into the orange liquid.

Steven laughed. “No Peridot!” Peridot pulled her tongue back into her mouth and flushed. “Like this!” Steven unwrapped a straw, stuck it in his drink, and took a sip from it.

Peridot scowled, fascinated. “Such simple, but effective technology.” She eagerly latched onto the plastic and pulled the orange drink into her mouth.

And then sprayed it out all over the table. Pearl shot to her feet, and Amethyst kicked back into screeching laughter. Garnet pulled the napkin dispenser toward her and removed a chunk of them.

“THIS IS A WEAPON!”

“It’s not a weapon!” Steven urged, trying not to laugh. “It’s just carbonated! It’s fizzy! Mine’s fizzy too!”

“It hurt me! You happily consume this?!”

“You get used to it,” Garnet stated, mopping up Peridot’s mess. “It grows on you.”

“Grows on you?!” Peridot bewildered. “Like a parasite?!”

Pearl groaned out her outrage. “Garnet, don't clean up her mess, make her do it herself!”

Peridot snapped her head up to glare at Pearl, and yanked the napkins out of Garnet’s hands, “You're the one who should be cleaning up after me, _pearl!_ ”

Before Amethyst and Steven could finish their ‘whoa whoa whoa,’ Pearl raised her hand to Peridot and Garnet grabbed her wrist to keep her from swinging.

Pearl huffed. “ _Say my name like that again,_ ” she seethed.

“I’ll let her hit you if you do,” Garnet added.

“Alright, I'm sorry,” Peridot hunched behind her hands. “I know better. I’m sorry.”  

Jenny peeked her head into the dining area, “y’all fightin’ in here?”

“No!” The Crystal Gems and Peridot all chimed at once.

“ _Aw,_ ” Jenny lamented and slipped into the back.

They all relaxed. Pearl sat back down and crossed her arms. Peridot made a face and continued wiping up her mess.

Amethyst swiped the orange soda "ee _Yoink!_ " and took a deep swig.

“Hey! That's mine!”

Amethyst swallowed and grinned. “It didn't look like you liked it.”

“I want to like it,” Peridot’s bravado shriveled as she flicked her eyes from Amethyst’s face to the drink and back. “Do you like it?”

Amethyst raised an eyebrow, wondering what that had to do with anything. “Duh.”

Peridot held her hand out for the cup, blue in the cheeks.

“You’re not going to spit it out again are you?”

“ _I will swallow it,_ ” Peridot annunciated, eyes narrowed. “Even if it does hurt me.”

Amethyst offered her the soda, “Take it, Nerd.”

“ _Thank you._ ” Peridot cradled it between her hands, eased it back up to her nose and sniffed it. She caught Pearl’s cold steel gaze, then did a double take and held it. She winced and dropped her eyes. “My last comment to you really was out of line. It’s become very clear to me that you are not just another pearl. You… you are Pearl. And I look forward to working with you.” She dared a glance back up at her.

Pearl’s silent aggression had vanished from her face. It was contemplative and gentle, and softened further with a smile.

Peridot started to return it, but it fell. “Please don’t hit me again.”

“I won’t hit you again, Peridot,” Pearl sighed. “I’m very sorry about that...” She flicked her eyes to the side, closed them and shook her head, “No I’m not,” she chuckled.      

Garnet laughed. It got Amethyst, then Steven to shriek with laughter.

Peridot watched them, blue faced, and chuckled along. She took the moment with the attention off of her to try the orange soda again. She cringed into a swallow, “ _Ngaah!_ ” She shook her head out. “It’s taste is splendid, but _owowow!_ ”

Amethyst, fit of laughter redoubled, smacked Peridot on the back. She jerked forward and the drink to slopped over the edge and splashed on her legs.


End file.
